Joanne didn’t believe that her life could become worse than it already was. She had lost everybody and everything she had loved. She was alone. Surely she had suffered enough? The press had called her identical twins psychopaths. Her Maggie. Her Annie. But she still loved them, even though one of them had killed her husband, Jeff. Joanne believed that his murder had been an accident. How could one of her girls be a murderer? She knew them better than anybody else. They were good girls really.

She just had to prove it.

The brutal murder of her god-daughter Laura had never been solved. Items were missing when Laura’s remains had been discovered: clues that could lead to the capture of her killer. One of them was Laura’s doll … the doll that Joanne later discovered in her home. Joanne is facing the most horrific dilemma of her life. Has the wrong woman been imprisoned? Could her child have used such brutality against her best friend? Or could both women be innocent after all?

She needs to find somebody for her daughter to confide in; somebody she will trust. She needs a miracle. There is only one person who can help. He is compassionate and caring, with an amazing ability to gain the trust of the most difficult patients. He is Joanne's only hope. He is Jonathan Davies.

FIRST IMPRESSION:

The phrase 'mummy's little angel' is often used to praise kids when they are beautiful and well behaved, telling them how they are special and brilliant. I could not make the connection with that phrase and the summary of the story but it did send chills down my spine. The cover image was perfectly horrific and well suited to the mood of the story. The summary is short but to the point, announcing many murders upfront and drawing the reader in to know what the connection between them was.

REVIEW:

Of all the love in world, a mother's love towards her child is one of the purest and the deepest forms of love. But what would happen when a mother is faced with the undeniable fact that one of her identical twin daughters is a raging psychopath who lusts for more than just blood and revenge? Even worse, which of her daughters was the murderer and which the victim or bystander? What would happen if the mother were to face one of her daughters to save the rest of her loved ones from her? What causes psychopathic behaviour in children and how far can it go before it can be identified and controlled or treated?

Mummy's little angel is a page turner, that is for sure. I read the considerably sized book in two sessions and I turned the pages in horrified silence thinking of how and why psychopaths are formed, ruining their own lives and those of many others simultaneously. The book managed to hold me in place because of two major things - the shocking storyline and the good language. Maggie and Annie are twins. One of them has murdered their father, Jeff and their mother Joanne is deluded and believes that it was an accident. But as more evidences of more murders surface and as the proof of (one of her) daughters' shocking psychopathic tendencies keeps mounting, the mother's love is tested as she realises the truth.

The suspense is maintained until nearly the end of the book and that is a good thing. But for seasoned readers, the character sketches gave an idea as to who was the mastermind or if it were just a series of innocent coincidences. For those who have been trained to look in the other direction as the magician wishes to divert your eyes to one side, this book will be a treat. You can play the race against the racing pages as you try to detect who the killer is. The story has too many shifting view points but the writing is similar in style for the various characters, making it hard to differentiate if you have not read the name at the start of the chapter. Written as diary entries, the multiple points of view can confuse you if you aren't clear about who is who. Not reflecting on the author's writing, a murder mystery (or even a psychological thriller) should leave more focus on the act and the process of identifying the truth behind the incident rather than use multiple angles that obviously distract the casual reader.

Overall, an excellent book for those who love thrillers and gory, dark mysteries. I am not really sure I like some of the turns this book took, and some explanations did sound flimsy, but the rushing 'closure' chapter does give a kind of closure to the story - albeit a twisted one. Be prepared to expect certain pain and pleasure things the summary does not quite cover and you will not be as shocked by the book as I was. But simply for the author's writing and the good plot, this deserves a good rating. A book you could not stop reading once you pick up, no matter what you think of the actual scene by scene developments. With the rapid twists and even more rapid changes of scene, this book demands your complete attention for you to understand the story and appreciate it.

WHAT I LIKED:

The story was full of twists and turns, and that made it unputdownable.

The characters are defined, and the horrors unexpected.

The plot itself is very well crafted and the story manages to hold the reader's interest through confusions.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:

Since this book has diary entries - it would have been much more logical to use actual dates for every entry to follow a chronological order.

If you have not expected it, the language and vivid descriptions of certain scenes will shock you.

VERDICT:

Unputdownable. But not just a 'thriller'.

RATING: 3.75/5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award Winning Author, JW Lawson is already gaining recognition for her writing talents in the US and worldwide. The second of a trilogy of sensational thrillers, Mummy's Little Angel is the winner of the highly acclaimed Worlds Best Story competition and has also received some outstanding reviews from the professional team of judges in the competition. She is currently writing her third thriller, Crossroads which will be available in 2017 and the final book of the current series, Hush Little Baby will be available in 2018.